Liberia opening 2nd Ebola center in capital

A Liberian woman holds up a pamphlet with guidance on how to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading, in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014. Liberian officials faced a difficult choice Thursday: deciding which handful of Ebola patients will receive an experimental drug that could prove life-saving, ineffective or even harmful.
(AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

Fact sheets for the Ebola virus are distributed during an awareness campaign in Lagos, Nigeria, Friday, Aug. 15, 2014. The Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa could last another six months, Doctors Without Borders said Friday, and an aid worker acknowledged that the true death toll is unknown. Meanwhile, new figures released by the World Health Organization showed that Liberia has recorded more deaths 413 than any of the other affected countries.
(AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberian authorities expanded Ebola treatment centers in the capital Saturday to cope with increasing numbers of patients, while two more airlines announced they were halting flights to the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone amid the deepening crisis.

Kenya Airways and regional carrier Gambia Bird join a number of other airlines in temporarily cancelling flights to avoid transmitting the disease beyond the four countries already affected in West Africa.

The Kenya Airways flights will stop as of midnight Tuesday, said Titus Naikuni, the chief executive officer of Kenya Airways. The decision was made with guidance from the country’s health ministry, Naikuni said.

Gambia Bird said it had stopped flying to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

“The decision has been taken in the light of international concern about the further spread of the Ebola virus in the West African sub-region, and with the aim of continuing to offer a safe and reliable service to all customers, whilst also protecting the health and well-being of passengers and crew,” the statement said.

Health experts have warned that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa may last another six months. At least 1,145 people have died across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, and that may “vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak,” the World Health Organization says.

New figures released on Friday showed that Liberia now has recorded more deaths — 413 — than any of the other affected countries.

On Saturday, a newly expanded, 34-bed Ebola treatment center was opened at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia, health officials said.

Another treatment center in the southeastern outskirts of Monrovia was expanded from 80 to 120 beds. That center will eventually be further expanded to take 300 patients.

Isolating Ebola patients is critical to slowing the spread of the disease, as sick people can transmit it through their bodily fluids such as blood, sweat or urine. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the disease, which has killed at least half of its victims this year.

Health workers treating Ebola patients on the front lines of the crisis have borne the brunt of the fatalities. Sierra Leone’s president, Ernest Bai Koroma, told journalists Friday that his country has lost two top doctors and 32 nurses.

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“We need specialized clinicians and expertise and that is why we are appealing to the international community for an enhanced response to our fight against the Ebola disease,” he said.